The Gumball Ring
by Ebb
Summary: Derek, Casey, Sam, and Emily take a camping trip winter break of senior year, during which long-suppressed feelings finally emerge, and it all starts with a silly plastic ring. Emily/Sam, DASEY. Checked for grammar and spelling. Smut in later chapters.
1. The Gas Station

The Gumball Ring.

Derek, Casey, Sam, and Emily take a camping trip during their winter break of senior year, during which long-suppressed feelings finally emerge. Emily/Sam, DASEY. Checked for grammar and spelling.

Casey had asked for a red gumball. The problem with these ancient gumball dispensers, however, was that there was really no way of telling which color would come out. Derek peered through the lightly scratched glass, trying to identify which color the candy at the very bottom was. It didn't work.

He and Sam were the only two shoppers in the middle-of-nowhere gas station with the poor heating system. The blonde, bearded cashier with the bleary eyes paid the two boys no attention as he flipped through a supermarket catalogue. The convenience store employee wore a puffy, dark green coat and a wool ski cap indoors, which was unsurprising considering how biting the cold was.

Sam was bustling about noisily, loading bag after bag of junk food into his arms, calling out to Derek about his preferences occasionally. Derek knew that he should be helping Sam, but Casey had requested a red gumball, and he would be damned if he would come back with anything less.

Derek thrust his bulky, mittened hand into his winter coat's pocket and dug around for a quarter. His other hand readjusted the scarf around his mouth, hoping to protect his nose from frostbite. He peered out the frosted window toward the only car in the lot, Sam's dad's Jeep. The girls were stretching their legs outside, arms crossed and feet stamping the ground for warmth.

Finally, he found the quarter and thrust it clumsily into the slightly-rusted slot. He grasped the little knob through his claw-like mitten and turned it, listening as the coin fell through the bowels of the dispenser, releasing a single gumball. He pushed the little trapdoor open hurriedly, feeling as though he had taken some gamble, and took the gum out. Green, he saw with a slight drop in his stomach. Well, it would have to do, he decided as he tucked the candy into his pocket. He turned around to look for Sam, who was partially concealed by the mountain of chips and candy in his arms.

"You need help there?" Derek called out jokingly.

"Just get the soda," Sam answered in mock annoyance.

Derek shrugged. "Fine," he said. He went over to the large fridge filled with soda bottles and picked out a few of each person's favorites. By that time, Sam had finished paying and was carrying his load out toward the car.

"I'll meet you in the car," Sam called just before the door shut after him.

Derek held the sodas under one arm, carefully scanning the store for anything Sam might have missed. For no particular reason, his eyes settled on a little slot machine next to the gumballs, one that dispensed plastic rings for little girls to play dress-up with.

Derek smiled as an idea occurred to him. He knew Casey would find this sort of thing funny, and so he fished another quarter out of his pocket and bought a ring on a whim. It came in a little plastic spherical container. The ring itself was a gaudily fake gold band with a little blue plastic pearl on it. Chuckling, he tucked it into his pocket and went to pay for the sodas.

--

Back in the car, Sam had already turned up the heat, and Derek was thrilled to escape the bitter cold as he slid into the driver's seat. Just as before, Casey sat next to him, and Emily and Sam were in the back.

"Casey, you wanted the Captain's Cracker Jacks, right?" he asked as he passed the brightly-colored bag up front.

"Yeah, thanks," Casey said as she popped the bag open.

"Did you remember what I wanted?" Emily asked flirtatiously.

Sam smiled. "Salt-and-Vinegar Ruffles, Tropical Starburst, Pirate Booty, and Peanut M&M's," he listed, passing each item over as he recited it.

"Love you," Emily chirped and pecked her boyfriend gently on the lips.

Casey rolled her eyes, amused. Derek imitated the sound of a whip cracking as he turned the key a notch further in the ignition and the engine turned over. Sam punched him gently in the arm.

Derek pulled out of the lot quickly and sped off down the highway.

"That place was _so_ creepy," Derek announced to Casey, who was enjoying her crackerjacks noisily.

"Yeah, it looked like it," Casey responded. "Sam said they didn't have any heat at all."

"Nope, the cashier guy was wearing full winter gear and everything. And there was a sign on the wall that said Beware: Shopkeeper Is Armed."

Casey laughed. "You're such a shithead."

"No, I swear it's true! We'll turn around if you want and I'll show you."

"No, Derek, that's okay," she assured him. "Did you get my gumball like I asked?"

"Oh, yeah." Derek fished the bright, large gumball out of his pocket.

Casey frowned. "I can't eat this, Derek, it's green," she scolded jokingly.

"Hey, it's the first one the machine gave me," Derek protested. "You better enjoy it."

He glanced over at Casey, who was holding the gumball warily in the palm of her gloved hand, eyes narrowed. It was so cute when she got annoyed that sometimes Derek couldn't help himself. Sure, their relationship had come a long way since the endless squabbling of several months ago, but Derek still enjoyed making Casey squirm sometimes.

"Nope, I can't do it. You'll have to eat it," Casey declared, pressing the gum up against his mouth.

"Ew, Casey, I hate this shit," Derek complained, trying to turn his face away while still maintaining eye contact with the road. "They all taste the same, anyway."

Casey gasped as though Derek had just spoken blasphemy. "They do not! The red ones are cherry!" she explained.

"Fine, okay," Derek said, popping the green gumball into his mouth. "It's over, we're done discussing this."

He bit through the gum's hard, crunchy shell, not at all enjoying the sugary taste that suddenly spread through his mouth. Casey giggled at his grimace. "Next time, you'll get me the red one like I ask," she said.

Noting the sudden quiet in the car, Derek glanced at the rearview mirror, trying to see what Sam and Emily were up to. Sure enough, they were making out against the backseat. The only sounds in the car were the smacking of their lips. Oddly enough, Derek didn't find this awkward, and he could tell Casey didn't, either. Instead, she was smiling crookedly at him, stifling laughter.

"Keep 'er nice and steady, Derek," she said, putting a hand on the dashboard. "We don't want any 'accidents' back there."

Derek sniggered. He loved it when Casey made naughty jokes; it was something he was unaccustomed to, and he felt as though he had corrupted her in some way. He was amazed at how smoothly the breakup between Casey and Sam had been. Though it was awkward at first, the two had salvaged a friendship, and now, sharing a long car ride together while he made out in the back seat with somebody else didn't faze Casey.

"You know, this is the first road trip I've taken in a really long while," Derek said.

"Well, it's probably the first road trip I've ever taken. And my first camping trip," Casey said.

Derek scoffed. "It's not really camping, Case. We're staying at a cabin." And they were damn lucky they got such a big discount off the renting price, too. Emily's aunt worked at a campsite that rented out cabins, and they were having a slow season, so Emily used her connection to get them a cheap price.

"We're still in the middle of nature," Casey countered.

Derek chuckled. "Someday, I'll take you camping for real. With bears and deer and tents and stuff. _That's_ nature."

"Bring it on, Bungalow Bill," Casey challenged, quoting the Beatles song that Derek had introduced her to the previous week.

Derek laughed. It hadn't been easy to get to this point with Casey, and it had taken a very strange and unlikely combination of events to get them there. First, there was Casey's early-decision acceptance letter from McGill. For days after she got the letter, she was extraordinarily easy to deal with. Derek had surprised everybody by gaining an acceptance as well, thanks to an angel of a hockey scout. With the weight of the college application process lifted before the beginning of second semester, the two could finally let go of quite a big burden.

But what really brought them together wasn't success but tragedy. It happened on a Saturday afternoon, when George and Nora had gone out to a company picnic for George. Nora had stormed into the house nearly two hours early, her expression horribly pained and angry, and locked herself in the master bedroom. George returned an hour later, a similar expression on his face. He stayed in the den, watching TV late into the night. For the entire next week, George and Nora had been cold toward each other, and on Friday they finally announced that they were getting a divorce. To that day, Derek had no idea what happened. All he knew was that Casey fell apart. The day they truly became best friends was the day he spent an afternoon holding her together and helping her pack up her things. Only when they realized that they would be torn from each other did they understand how much they needed each other.

Remembering the crushed expression on Casey's face sent a chilling heartbreak through him that was only alleviated when he glanced over to see her face a mask of tranquility, lost in sleep.

--

**So this chapter sets things up a little bit. Please please please leave reviews because I truly appreciate them so much!**


	2. The Ride Over

The Gumball Ring.

"Christ," Derek murmured under his breath, sending a small cloud of vapor into the still, frozen night air. He stood with Emily under a single florescent light next to a lone pay phone at the side of the road, digging deep into his coat pockets for quarters. "Could you check your phone again?" he asked hopefully. "Maybe you'll get some service or something."

Emily sighed but pulled her phone out anyway. "Nope. Nothing. Nobody has service here. Can you just hurry up and find some quarters? It's freezing out here!" She looked back longingly toward the car containing Sam and Casey.

"You think I don't know that?" Derek asked as he shoveled some old tissues and gum wrappers out of his pockets. "Hold this, okay?" He dumped the assortment of random junk into Emily's hands.

"Ew," she commented softly as she flicked away the old tissues. Everything in her hands seemed like garbage except for the little plastic sphere that was hidden under a Kleenex. Her interests piqued, she held the little knick-knack up to the light. "Why do you have this?"

Derek abandoned his quarter hunt for just long enough to glance at what she was holding. "Oh. One of those plastic ring thingies from the dispensers," he explained distractedly.

Emily smirked. "I know. Do they make you feel like a beautiful princess or something?"

Derek thrust his hand out of his pocket triumphantly. "Ha! I told you I had quarters left! Oh, and shut up." Before Emily could ask another question, Derek had dropped a coin into the pay phone and begun dialing.

Emily shoved her hands into her pockets, looking for additional warmth. Her guess was that the ring was for Casey, or at least that's the way she would have liked to imagine it. Ever since she and Sam had gotten together, the need to ignore the chemistry between Casey and Derek had disappeared. Back when she thought she had real feelings for Derek, she pretended not to notice the way his eyes followed Casey or the way Casey's eyes would widen and soften at his mention. Watching Derek wait for somebody to pick up the phone, Emily realized that it was difficult to remember being attracted to Derek; the sensation of her heart fluttering when he entered a room seemed foreign and inapplicable to her. She watched as Derek tried to get the mandatory call to his father over with. Even in the harsh lighting he just seemed cute now, the way a child would. It didn't give Emily butterflies to be alone with him.

Emily leaned against the side of the pay phone, listening to Derek fill in the conversation with the minimal number of words. She and Sam joked all the time about how the two of them should be together, even though they're too blind to realize it. Neither was actually sure that the pairing would work, but it was fun to imagine a relationship between them.

"Yes, father," Derek droned sarcastically into the receiver. In response to something George had said, Derek peered down the highway as though their destination were in sight. He checked the time on his cell phone. "About one more hour, maybe?" he said.

Emily smirked, catching his lie. There was no way they would be there in an hour, but Derek didn't want George thinking that he would be driving past midnight.

"Well, that's why God invented headlights," Derek concluded, leaning an elbow against the top of the pay phone.

Emily heard a sudden rush of static as George sighed on the other end of the line.

"Okay … okay, bye Dad." Derek hung the phone up quickly and handed Emily a quarter. "Your turn on the fabulous ride of Calling the Parental Units," he grumbled. "I'm assuming you don't want me to wait in the car."

Emily glared daggers at him. "Hey, I waited for you!" She stuffed her coin into the slot and dialed her home number. The phone rang twice before her mother picked up.

"Hey, Mom," Emily said. She watched Derek wade around the phone in circles like a wind-up penguin, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He exhaled sharply at random intervals just to see the vapor puff out around his mouth. His nose was getting red from the cold.

"Yeah, we're almost there, just about another hour," she said.

"Can you call when you get there?" her mom asked.

"If Aunt Rachel connected the phones, then sure, but our cells probably won't get service."

This time it was her mom's turn to sigh. "All right, but you'll definitely call tomorrow morning, right?"

"Yes." Emily wrapped the conversation up quickly and hung up the phone. She and Derek crossed the deserved highway and slid back into the car that was parked on the shoulder.

--

Derek was terrible at estimating distances. The drive took another two and a half hours. Emily remembered being woken up by Derek shaking Sam's shoulder at 11:56. She raised her head sleepily from Sam's shoulder and remembered Derek whispering, "Get up, Lazyass. Your turn to drive." Sam had quickly kissed her before getting out of the back row. Derek took his place, and Emily was forced to sleep against the headrest.

They arrived a little after one, sleepy and disoriented. By the time Emily opened her eyes, the car was fully parked beside a quaint little log cabin with all the lights turned off and pitch black wilderness surrounding it. Everything was covered in a few inches of fluffy snow. The four friends tumbled out of the car and Emily jammed the key into the front door lock.

"So how are we dividing the bedrooms up?" Derek asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "I vote that I get to sleep with Sam," he offered excitedly.

Sam laughed and put his arm around Emily. "I'd love to Derek, but I'm taken. Some other time…?"

Derek sighed in mock dejection. "It's always 'some other time' with you. Man, sometimes I don't know how committed you are to this relationship."

"Okay, then," Emily interrupted. "Sam and I get the master bedroom upstairs, Derek and Casey can have the downstairs bedroom and the couch; I really don't care."

"Shot the bed!" Casey and Derek proclaimed at once.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Can we leave before World War III starts here?"

Sam chuckled. "Smart thinking." He picked up his and Emily's suitcases and headed up the stairs. Emily followed, holding nothing but her small duffle. It still made Emily feel warm when Sam did little things for her like carrying her bags. To him, it seemed obvious that he should do little things to make life easier for her. Nobody else had ever been so effortlessly good to her.

Sam set their bags down on the cabin floor and flicked the lights on. Emily took in the small but cozy room with clean white spaces and a big, soft bed.

"Dammit, Derek, you know I can't sleep on couches; they make my back hurt," Casey's shrill voice carried up the stairs. "Be a gentleman for once in your life and—" Sam closed the door, effectively muffling the shouting downstairs.

Emily fell down onto the bed, feeling more awake now that she had moved around a bit. She looked up at Sam, taking in his soft, brown eyes and his untidy blond hair. She took her hair out of its bun, knowing that Sam was watching the tight curls unfurl.

"Come'ere," she cooed in what she hoped was a soft, sexy tone.

Sam smiled in that shy, goofy way that only he could. "Yes, Ma'am," he joked. He came toward her, throwing his shirt away in the process.

Emily stood up, running her hands over the smooth, taut muscles in his chest and stomach before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. His soft lips brushed against hers gently before he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. Emily examined every facet of his buttery eyes. Sam smiled and kissed her again, this time parting his lips slightly so that his tongue could enter Emily's mouth. Emily loved the way Sam's tongue felt against her, the warmth his body could offer. She loved the contrast of his sun-kissed to her chocolate skin and the way his hands felt on her body.

Sam ran his fingertips down his girlfriend's arms, making her shiver. His mouth kissed down to her neck, kissing her favorite spot gently. Emily busied herself with his belt buckle, undoing the metal fastening frantically. As she unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, he raised her shirt up over her head. Emily moaned softly as she pulled the two of them down onto the bed, Sam wriggling out of his pants as he went.

Once they were horizontal, it was much easier for Emily to feel the bulge in Sam's pants against her thigh. She propped herself up on her elbows, making it easier for Sam to undo her bra. His fingers found and undid the clasp quickly; Emily wore that bra frequently and Sam could practically remove it in his sleep.

Sam's warm mouth moved down to her collarbone, nipping at it gently, one hand kneading her breast, the other helping to support his weight. Emily quickly undid her jeans and twisted out of them. Sam sat up for just long enough to remove his boxers, during which time Emily took off her panties.

She was getting those familiar butterflies in her stomach, the ones that she could only get from Sam laying on top of her. She loved that he could thrill her so much even after months in a relationship.

"Love you," he murmured, his lips a fraction of an inch from hers. His forehead rested against hers, his eyes closed serenely.

The butterflies in Emily's stomach fluttered anxiously. "Me too," she replied, bending her knees up toward the ceiling.

He slid into her slowly, and Emily exhaled breathily as she experienced the wonderful sensation of being filled by him once more. Sam began grinding up against her in smooth, quick motions, Emily matching his rhythms with her hips. She could never pinpoint it down, but there was something in the way his hips moved that stirred something just right in her.

The room began to dissolve around her as the sheets started to become damp with their sweat. Emily shut her eyes, focused on the feelings coursing through her body and the way Sam felt in her arms. She scrambled up frantically toward her orgasm as though carried by a strong wind, and when she came she felt her soul expand and burst and reform in a split second.

"I love you," Sam repeated as he reached his peak just a few seconds afterward.

Emily just kissed him gently before a deep sleep claimed her exhausted body.

--

Emily crept down the stairs with Sam the following morning, hungry and well-rested. She noticed that the couch was completely vacant. She figured that Casey was already up and probably reorganizing the bookcase or something, and that Derek was probably still snoring in the bed.

Emily began rooting through the meager store of food they had brought, looking for the frozen waffles.

"Holy shit!" Sam suddenly exclaimed in a whisper from the hallway.

"What?" Emily asked, noting the amused tone of his voice.

"Em, come look at this!"

Emily went over to where Sam was standing, at the entrance to Derek's room. He moved aside so that she could see through the crack in the door. There, in the semi-darkness of a winter morning, lay Derek and Casey on the same bed, sleeping peacefully. Casey was sprawled out on her back, her hair fanning out around her. Derek was on his side, facing Casey, his arm thrown over her waist. It was very cute aside from the little puddle of drool under Casey's mouth.

Emily giggled softly, trying not to wake them. "What did I tell you?" she asked playfully.

"Yeah, well, what can I say? My girlfriend's a genius."

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**What really made this chapter so long was the addition of the not-so-necessary sex scene. I hope you guys enjoyed it, because up until the last minute I figured I wouldn't put it in. **

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**Again, I am so, so grateful for every single review I get, so please don't hesitate to tell me what you think, even if it's not so positive!**

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